'Reform the Platform,' launched last month with a similar tour throughout New Hampshire, is a $1 million effort that makes the case for removing anti-gay language from the national Republican Party platform before the 2016 Republican National Convention. Young Conservatives are touring early presidential primary states - including later this month in Nevada - to meet with the press, like-minded GOP advocates, and elected officials to discuss the campaign and encourage young Republicans who support reforming the platform to run for delegate and attend the Convention.

Republican strategist and author Margaret Hoover will headline the marriage tour, hosting and leading meetings with elected officials, conservative activists, and voters across the state. Hoover has close ties to Iowa - her great-grandfather President Herbert Hoover was an Iowa native, and Margaret Hoover now serves on the board of Hoover's Presidential Library Association in West Branch.

Margaret Hoover explained why this effort is important to her. She said:

In the five years since Iowa approved marriage for gay couples, countless families across the state have been strengthened, as has the principle of individual liberty that we conservatives hold dear. The Republican Party stands for freedom and the centrality of family, and that’s why I believe so strongly in marriage for same-sex couples. It's time our official party platform reflect the diversity of views on marriage held by rank-and-file Republicans. A greater openness on the freedom to marry will maximize Republicans’ chances to appeal to younger voters and win.

Since establishing the freedom to marry in 2009 after a court decision not unlike the 35 consecutive pro-marriage rulings that have been issued since June 2013, Iowans have steadily understood that the freedom to marry has been good for the state: A March 2014 poll by The Des Moines Register tracked that 64% of Iowans felt either proud or indifferent that same-sex couples could marry in their state.

Hoover will be traveling to Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport this week alongside Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry campaign manager Tyler Deaton and four other representatives. Deaton explained:

Young Conservatives are in Iowa to connect with party leaders who are committed to building a Republican Party that can appeal to younger voters in upcoming elections. Marriage for same-sex couples is consistent with core Republican values of limited government, individual liberty, and personal responsibility.

In at least five states - Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, New Mexico, and California - Republican leaders have already expressed opposition to anti-gay, anti-marriage language in their party platforms - and just this year, Republicans in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District removed a section of their district platform that sought to restrict marriage to different-sex couples, replacing it with a statement that government should have no role in marriage.